Luke put the bag on the kitchen table and started pulling out the locks and packages of door knobs. He didn't notice Nathan and Kota until he turned to throw the bag out. His eyes narrowed briefly and then he smiled. "Do you guys want to join us?" Nathan and Kota looked at the stuff on the table and then back up to Luke. Kota tilted his head a little, as if thinking it through, then said "What are you guys doing? Is this part of your date?"
Luke picked up one of the locks and spun it in his fingers, then looked at me. I spoke up "Luke is going to teach me how to pick a lock. You never know when that could come in handy." I was looking at Luke as I spoke, but as he smiled at me I turned to look at Nathan and Kota. It took a beat, but Nathan smiled back at me. "I'll buy that. I want to play." He moved closer to the table and pulled out a chair to sit down.
"Nathan wait." It was Kota. Nathan stopped immediately and stood up straight and looked at Kota.
"This is still part of their date, we should leave them alone." Kota put his head down and then looked back up. "Is this actually what you want Sang?" He was looking right into my eyes and I felt like he needed a specific answer. I wanted to say something, but I was confused by his look. Was he mad that Luke was going to do this with me? He seemed to realize that I was at a loss for words. "Mr. Blackbourne insinuated that we assume what you want, but it may not be actually what you want." Owen said that? What did that mean? I needed to think about that later. "I want to." I moved closer to Kota and put my hand on his arm. He looked down at my hand and then back into my eyes. "I want to Kota. I want to learn everything. I want Luke to show me how to pick a lock, I want Nathan to keep teaching me self-defense, I want you to teach me…everything." Kota closed his eyes and let out a sigh. When he opened his eyes again they looked almost sad. Kota reached up and held on to the hand that I had still on his arm.
"Sang, I tried to deny it, but you are, without a doubt, an Academy girl." He brought my hand up to his lips and kissed my palm. He used our joined hands to push his glasses up on to his nose further then looked at Luke.
"Nathan and I could use a refresher on this anyway. Let's get started." Nathan quickly sat back down, probably before Kota could change his mind again, and Luke clapped his hands and rubbed them together. "Excellent. Kota, can you grab an extra pick set? I only have mine." Kota nodded, released my hand and turned to walk down the hall. Did everyone have a pick set?
When I couldn't hear Kota's footsteps anymore, I walked to the table to sit. "That was huge Peanut." Nathan was looking at me. "Kota has been struggling with that pretty much since we met you. It's like he saw how successful you could be, but didn't want to admit it, I guess. He seems ready to stop fighting it. Congrats." He smiled but before I could respond I heard Kota coming back in. Was it really that easy to get through to Kota? I just had to tell him how I felt?
Luke sat next to me, and Kota sat on the other side of Nathan. Luke put a padlock in front of each of us and unrolled a small piece of felt in the middle of the table. There were 10 thin pieces of metal with different tops tucked into the felt. Luke pointed at the first one on the left. "These first two are torsion wrenches. You will use one of these almost every time you pick." He continued down the row of picks, giving me a name and a brief description. There were hooks, diamonds, saw tooth, and ball picks. I tried to follow when he thought I would need each one, but it was hard because I couldn't visualize the different type of locks he was saying. When he was done he slid out a torsion wrench and hook pick from the felt and turned the padlock upside down so he could see the key hole on the bottom. "Hold this up for me Cupcake, and I will try to walk you through what to do." I held the lock in position and Luke stuck the hook pick in and kept the wrench close by. He started moving the hook pick around, inserting the wrench in after a bit. He continued to move the hook pick until I heard a click from the lock. I looked down at the hinge and saw it had loosened. Luke put down the picks and took the lock from my hand, pulling the hinge down and unlocking it completely. "Viola!" He said.
"That's great Luke, but you didn't say anything the whole time. How was that showing her what to do?" Nathan had a point. It was fascinating to watch, but other than sticking the tools in I didn't know what to do. Luke looked at me with an apologetic face. "Sorry Sang. I thought I could explain what I was doing, but it turns out I don't really think much when I am doing it." Nathan let out a laugh but Kota sent him a look that immediately quieted the laugh. "Zip it Nate or you will be uninvited to our lock picking date. I think it would be better if you try it and I can try to walk you through what to look for, or rather feel for." Luke pushed the picks towards me and held up my lock just like I had held his.
For the next hour I worked the hook pick around in the locks. I managed to unlock two padlocks to which Luke couldn't stop talking about. "She's a natural. Did you see it Nate? Did you time it Kota? Time it this time." I had just started to work on the third lock when we heard the door open and close.
"What the fuck is happening? What are those? Sang Baby, what are you doing?" North picked me up out of the chair and sat down in my place, settling me on his lap. Silas took another seat at the table. I was still holding the picks so I held them up for North to see. "Picking, want to do it with me?" North looked at the picks in my hand, then looked over to Luke. "I am guessing this was your fucking idea?" Luke looked shocked at first, then started laughing. "I told you he would be mad Sang. Watch it though North, she said that if you were going to be mad at anyone, you would have to be mad at her. Good luck with that though, wait until you see her, she is amazing."
It sounded like North grunted, then he said "I could have told you that without teaching her something that could get her into trouble." Everyone, except North, started laughing.
"Get a grip North. I like the idea of a sneaky Agelle. She seems sassy." Silas wiggled his eyebrows up and down at me. I felt a growl start in North's chest but all he said was "Fine." He pointed a finger and Kota "I can't believe you encouraged this." He pointed it at Nathan. "You, I can believe. But not Kota." Kota grimaced a little but then just shrugged. "I didn't have a choice, she's going to be an Academy girl after all." Everyone turned to look at Kota and North had turned completely rigid. Silas, who was spinning one of the locks in his hands, had dropped the lock to the table and had his mouth slightly open.
"Well fuck Kota, that is the last thing I thought you would ever say." After North broke the silence Silas slid the lock on the table towards me.
"Let's see what you can do Aggele."